My first review of this product was scathing.
But I kept it between myself and RPG staff.

Then a few months later this comes out.
WAY BETTER PRODUCT. And Great customer service. Thanks for listening DP9.
And thanks for speaking for us DriveThru.

The graphics in this are far superior to the first pdf. Not even compatible.
Tons of Vehicles of this great universe. Awesome art, good stats and cool history.
I highly recommend this product now.
No it is not the physical book or have the quality that it does. But it was a quarter of the price.

Cons
It is not perfect but it could also be the design of the book.
I find about 9 in 10 of the great pictures are set on the page just so a piece of the graphic is off the page. Almost like a copy right protection method so they could sell you a book of their art with out a corner of a car or space ship or Gear being cut off the edge of the paper. hmmmmm
It could have OCR as well. that would have been a nice touch.
For these they lost a star.

Over all
FAR superior to original scan.
Product is MUCH improved over original.
4 out of 5 stars.

DP9
You brought me back with this product.
Now please look at your other low res scans and correct them as well.

Just a quick FYI, these rules are actually slightly outdated. What this rulebook really provides is the background setting and great history about the world.

It also included a nice painting guide and army guides for building your units.

But the rules have since been updated, and you'll need the Heavy Gear Blitz! Field Manual for that. I would consider this a supplement with great fluff and some painting guidance. But it's free now, so perfect!

I am new to the Heavy Gear Blitz hobbie, and I foind this series of magazines, both enjoyable to read and full of great information for the game! Good articles that keep you interested. As well as wonderful layout and artistic look!
If they keep writing them, I will keep getting them!

This was my first Heavy Gear field guide. You can exxpect the usual pleasantries of background, new history, characters and the force list restrictions. So, what makes the field guide different. It is the first field guide to display visuals of the units. Page 88 of the guid ahs an exellent example of what I am talking about. It is the Sampson armored infantry platoon. When you look at a squad you see waht you are supposed to see on the table. Each possible build has 1 Sampson pictured and 2 rows of infantry. look closely at the infantry. They are broken up by their allocation for their bases with each row being one combined model. I love this it has made building forces for every faction a lot easier.

HG Blitz is the basic rule book for Heavy Gear. You will need the Heavy Gear Field Manual to go a long with this if you purchase the book. The book is laid out fairly well with a lot of diagrams and pictures for you to reference. The rules section has been replaced by the field manual. But that is OK most of this book contains the background information on Terra Nova. It also hosts the information you need to build most of the armies you are allowed to play in Heavy Gear. If I didn't purchase this product I would not have found a new miniatures game to play.

HG has some unique approaches to their game mechanics. The first is Margin of Success (MoS). Basically players roll a number of dice equal to their skill level and take the highest die roll. Then they compare the roll and subtract to get the difference. The difference determines failure or success. I think it is one of the best dice mechanics out there.

The second, is it is an action point system. That is each model or combined model has x actions. Actions can be used at any time during your movement. It requires one action to move at top speed.

The third, is it is a game of combined arms. Your choices vary from list to list but you get to choose from infantry, gears, and tanks.

The final unique item is command points. Command points add a whole new element to the game that I am yet to experience.

What I really like about Heavy Gear is that the game is truly about the tactics you employ. You do need to have a good understanding of what is in play and what the terrain allows for, but the good news about that is it is the same for everyone.

We have a lot of videos on Heavy gear over at gamer-goggles.com feel free to check them out.

Sometimes I buy RPG's I know I won't be able to play with my gaming group specifically for the fiction or art included. It's always unfortunate to get a book I won't use 50% of. That's why I was excited to see these art books from the Jovian Chronicles. I've been a big fan of their ship and mecha designs, so it was great to be able to own it in one collection instead of having to get hunders of dollars worth of RPG books (or, more likely, just going without).

Sometimes I buy RPG's I know I won't be able to play with my gaming group specifically for the fiction or art included. It's always unfortunate to get a book I won't use 50% of. That's why I was excited to see these art books from the Jovian Chronicles. I've been a big fan of their ship and mecha designs, so it was great to be able to own it in one collection instead of having to get hunders of dollars worth of RPG books (or, more likely, just going without).

Background, stories, rules, scenario ideas... if you are beginning in Heavy Gear Blitz! like me is good to know what have passed before, if you are an old timer its a good way of having new ideas for scenarios and stuff.

Gear UP Issue 5 is an excellent read, and also an excellent resource for those who want to join in the Heavy Gear gaming community. Lots of great artwork, as well as informative painting tips and tutorials, plus plenty of articles dealing with myriad subjects, including army building from those who have become a part of the community. An additional bonus is the Field Testing rules, which are beta rules designed to improve the game due to feedback provided by folks on the forums for Dream Pod 9. Although these rules are not made official yet, they show that DP9 truly appreciates the opinions of its players and tries to provide a very balanced and very enjoyable game for everyone who wants to get involved.

I had no troubles with my own personal copy, and thought the scan used by DTRPG was excellent quality. Definitely no qualms for the staff at DTRPG.